A host of celebrities are launching a year-long campaign to put pressure on governments to eradicate world poverty.

Bono, Claudia Schiffer, Scarlett Johansson, Jamelia, Fran Healey from Travis, Busted, the Sugarbabes, Graham Norton and Stephen Fry are among those who have signed up to the Make Poverty History campaign.

The campaign, supported by more than 100 charities, unions and faith groups, is calling on Tony Blair and other world leaders to deliver trade justice, debt cancellation and better aid provision for the world's poor.

Travis's Fran Healey, who recently returned from a trip to Africa with Save the Children, said: "No-one can be oblivious or ignorant to the plight of the poor, nor to the responsibility our governments have as architects of their poverty.

"We must take this opportunity in 2005 to make poverty history once and for all," he said.

The campaign is timed to coincide with Britain's chairing of the G8 and, later this year, the presidency of the European Union.

The Make Poverty History coalition this week issued a challenge to the Prime Minister to address the problems of trade, aid and debt.

Campaigner Bob Geldof said: "This is about firing the starting pistol to the year of 2005 when Britain is the chair of the G8 and the president of the EU.

"The kind of stupid poverty where kids are dying for the lack of an immunisation that costs 20 cents, or for lack of food in a world of plenty. Don't we want to be the generation that says no to that?"

The Make Poverty History coalition has also launched a white band, which they hope celebrities and the public will be wearing this year to show solidarity with their cause.

This is meant as no disrespect to the Tsunami victims.
They need our help urgently.
It is only proposed as a wakeup for us all. I'm concentrating on the African problems not hte war please.

http://207.44.245.159/article7617.htm
01/04/05 "The Guardian" -- There has never been a moment like it on British television. The Vicar of Dibley, one of our gentler sitcoms, was bouncing along with its usual bonhomie on New Year's Day when it suddenly hit us with a scene from another world. Two young African children were sobbing and trying to comfort each other after their mother had died of Aids. How on earth, I wondered, would the show make us laugh after that? It made no attempt to do so. One by one the characters, famous for their parochial boorishness, stood in front of the camera wearing the white armbands which signalled their support for the Make Poverty History campaign. You would have to have been hewn from stone not to cry.

The timing was perfect. In my local Oxfam shop last week, people were queueing to the door to pledge money for the tsunami fund. A pub on the other side of town raised £1,000 on Saturday night. In the pot on the counter of the local newsagent's there must be nearly £100. The woman who runs the bakery told me about the homeless man she had seen, who emptied his pockets in the bank, saying "I just want to do my bit", while the whole queue tried not to cry.

Over the past few months, reviewing the complete lack of public interest in what is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the failure, in the west, to mobilise effective protests against the continuing atrocities in Iraq, I had begun to wonder whether we had lost our ability to stand in other people's shoes. I have now stopped wondering. The response to the tsunami shows that, however we might seek to suppress it, we cannot destroy our capacity for empathy.

But one obvious question recurs. Why must the relief of suffering, in this unprecedentedly prosperous world, rely on the whims of citizens and the appeals of pop stars and comedians? Why, when extreme poverty could be made history with a minor redeployment of public finances, must the poor world still wait for homeless people in the rich world to empty their pockets?
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You can join the campaign against global poverty at: www.makepovertyhistory.org - www.monbiot.com

Like Gordon Brown said, the developed world needs two responses to extreme poverty: 1) funds for emergencies like the tsunami to get the area affected over the immediate crisis and back on the road to recovery and 2) funds for the LONGTERM and SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT of countries that have experienced historical underdevelopment by exploitation by the developed world - like the African subcontinent.

This is the only sensible way to approach extreme poverty in the world. So while money should go to help the tsunami-affected peopel start their recovery from this disaster. monies from Global AIDS and other programs to help bring Africa out of her historical underdevelopment SHOULD NOT SUFFER.

I'm just recently back form hearing Stephen Lewis United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa

and the most common question asked of him was how he felt about funding for the Tsunami vs what the response to Africa has been

" It's not a question of either or, there is enough to support and respond to both these. We can spend billions on conflict, and yet we can not find the money to repair the human condition and we will pay dearly for this, I believe that".

It's not good to hear a country like Italy cancelling the 100 million euros they promised to the Global Fund that is a huge blow.

Originally posted by starsgoblue Well I have good news and bad news....the wristbands for the Make Poverty History campaign are now available. Either in cotton, silicone or a wrap like the one Bono wore...http://www.makepovertyhistory.com/getaband.html

The bad news is all the stores that are supplying the band are for UK orders only. Which means anyone else is screwed.